


Edward Ride

by GemmaRose



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Maximum Ride - James Patterson
Genre: Alchemy, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chimera Edward Elric, Clothing, Combat, Empath, Empath Edward Elric, Escape, Flying, Gen, Human Experimentation, Mild Blood, Original Character Death(s), Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Character Tags to be Added - Freeform, Unethical Experimentation, ok now all that's out of the way
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-07-19 00:32:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7337353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Father imploded at the end of the battle of Central, the black hole which did the deed took Edward Elric with him. Now Edward is on the other side of the Gate, trapped in the body of an eleven year old human chimera, with no clue how to get himself home or Al's soul back from the Gate. Good thing he's got other bird kids to help him stay free of the School while he figures it out.</p><p>Updates monthly. On hiatus until, uh, whenever I'm done with Voltron Big Bangs (why are there so many so fast T_T)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a reworking of an old fic by the same name on FFN, which you can find [here](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5934854/1/Edward-Ride).

In a hospital in Arizona, a dark haired woman cried quietly in a hospital bed. In her arms was an infant swaddled in a soft blue blanket. It did not move, or cry, or breathe.

Outside the very same hospital a steel-eyed blonde woman sat in the front seat of a white sedan, smiling ever so slightly. In the back seat, a researcher from the local branch of her corporation held a small child. A newborn, not even an hour old, with deep gold feathers sprouting from his shoulder blades. At her facility, far from any other sign of civilization, she watched through a window as the infant was placed in a crib. Across the hall, three toddlers with downy wings sat and solved logic puzzles while a team of scientists took notes.

Some months later, though the blonde was not present to witness it, the gold-feathered boy was assigned a small room, and his crib was given to a new infant with dark skin and brown feathers. Over the years more winged children arrived, and the gold-feathered boy remained apart from them, never being made to sleep in a cage. He received lessons, and with each day grew smarter and stronger. The other children disappeared, but he did not know or care.

His name, affectionately given to him by the sharp-eyed woman who led his tests and taught his lessons, was Birdy.

\---

“I told you I don’t know!”

Electricity surged through the boy’s lean frame, and the wolfishly beautiful interrogators scowled at him. “You’re lying. Now tell us, **who** took the other experiments and **where** are they?”

“I don’t know! Please, I don’t know anything!”

The door of the room flew open, hitting the wall with a bang, and a woman with dark hair stormed into the room. “Who authorized you to interrogate my subject?” her tone demanded an answer, and she slammed a clipboard down on the table next to the monitor.

“Uh-”

“Don’t say a word, 0382.” she snapped, turning off the computer and deactivating the electric chair. “Subject hgi has had no contact with any of Batchelder’s flock. If you’re looking for answers, I’d suggest asking the man who supervises the missing experiments.”

“With all due respect, Ma’am, Batchelder is nowhere to be found.”

“Then find him. That what you’re good for, isn’t it?” she barked, undoing the straps which held the boy in place. “My subject has an endurance test.”

The child all but leapt into her arms, golden wings flaring under the harsh flourescent lights, and as she carried him from the room he stuck his tongue out at the Erasers.

“Are you alright, Birdy?” the woman asked once they were out of earshot of the bio-engineered guards, setting him down on the cool linoleum floor tiles of the hallway.

“I’m fine.” he smiled, reaching up to take her hand as they walked. “Do I get to fly today?”

The scientist chuckled, ruffling long messy hair as vibrantly golden as his feathers. “Sorry, kid. Today’s just treadmill. Normal stuff.”

“Sprints?” he asked hopefully.

“Distance.” she smiled. “But you’ll be doing sprints in a few days.”

“Aww.” he pouted, huffing at the . “Do I hafta?”

“Yes, you do ‘hafta’. Unless you want to do the high altitude tests again.”

Birdy shook his head quickly at the suggestion, his face mildly panicked. “Running’s good. I’ll do the running.”

“Good.” she smiled, tapping her ID against a pad by the door to make it open. “Josh will hook you up.”

Birdy grinned and bounced over, obligingly holding still as sensors were taped to his skin. The treadmill started slow, as it always did, and the woman gave her subject a pat on the head before striding out the door to do something else. The two other scientists chatted amongst themselves, occasionally asking the recombinant questions and gradually upping the speed of the treadmill until Birdy was jogging at a steady 24 kilometers per hour.

Birdy laughed, and started singing a tuneless nonsense song. These tests were familiar to him, easy and fun, and he knew that if he did better than his standing record time he would get a juice box before going back to his room. The scientists chuckled and began tilting the treadmill up, forcing Birdy to stop singing. Maybe if he was lucky, he’d get an apple juice box today instead of grape.

When the woman returned, the boy smiled wide at her and lifted his feet a little higher, redoubling his effort in an attempt to impress her. She chuckled and walked over to the booth where her assistants sat, playing cards in the space between the computer monitors.

“How are his readings?”

“Pretty normal.” said one of the men, tapping his computer screen with one bitten nail. “He’s improved a bit since the last time we ran this test, as projected.”

“For such a shrimpy boy, he sure can run.” the woman quipped with a smile.

“I can hear you, hag.” Birdy fired back, frowning over his shoulder. “I’m not short.”

“Do you want me to smack you?” she threatened, raising a fist.

Birdy grinned impishly at the empty threat and turned back to face forwards. “I’m fun sized, remember?”

Josh laughed. “You sure are, kid.”

“Josh, I want you to start upping the speed again. One kph every ten minutes. Seth, come with me. The latest batch of Erasers need some shots.”

Birdy waved as the pair left, and then stumbled slightly as the treadmill changed speeds. It felt like forever later that he tripped and fell off of the running machine, legs feeling like sacks of wet concrete and lungs burning. Josh gave a low, impressed whistle, and with the treadmill no longer humming at him Birdy heard a door open under the desk. Despite his exhaustion, he propped himself up to sitting with a grin. Juice box time. 

Josh walked around the desk, punching the straw into the juice box in his hand. Purple, which meant it was grape again. Damn. “You’re a real trooper, kid. That was six hours.”

Birdy grinned and accepted the juice box, eagerly sucking down the liquid inside. Grape was far from his favourite, but when it came to cold sugary drinks he was hardly picky.

“You really are something else, Birdy.” Josh grinned, taking the quickly-drained juice box and flicking it across the room into the trash. “Put those other recombinants to shame.”

The boy chuckled, and his next words came from somewhere he can’t quite put his finger on. “Course. It’s cuz I’m not a recombinant.”

Josh laughed, peeling off the disposable sensors and dropping them in a little bag. “Oh, really? So what are you, birdie boy?”

Birdy grinned, tired and proud, locking his wide gold eyes with the adult’s crinkled green. “I’m a chimera.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> text in parentheses is not extra Authors Notes, because this is not FFN. It's just stuff that Ed wouldn’t know, and is getting from Birdy’s brain.

Ed looked around, utterly disoriented in all-encompasing blackness. There was no way to tell direction in this dark, but that somehow wasn’t frightening. In fact, the darkness was almost comforting. “Where-” he muttered, racking his brains for how he’d gotten here. Wherever ‘here’ was. It certainly wasn’t the Gate, he clearly remembered what it felt like to be one of the bodies behind those reaching arms of shadow. His thoughts hadn’t been his own in that place, overwritten with truths he could no longer recall, and he hadn’t been able to properly see.

How had he gotten out of there? He screwed his eyes shut and tried to remember. It had been dark, he’d been forced into a hive mind, and then the Gate had opened and something warm, no, some _body_ had pulled him out of the darkness and given him back his own thoughts. They had passed through the Gate, and then there was light and heat and colour, and then nothing. He pressed his fingers to his eyes, frantically trying to remember.

He remembered a familiar voice, soothing, commanding, a voice he wanted to obey. That’s what had let her remove him from the Gate. Her, it had been a woman. Yeah, definitely a woman. Not Winry, somebody older. Not Pinako, too old. Ed’s hands fell to his sides and he blinked. Izumi. It had been Izumi who saved him, and she had been with him when they left the Gate into this world. That must have been the colour and light he remembered, his soul seeking out a body. But if he was in a body, why was he stuck in darkness? And where was Izumi?

He closed his eyes again, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyelids. If he tried hard enough, maybe he could remember more than just colour and light. He must have seen the body her spirit went into. Unless she’d been pulled away towards her form while he was sucked into his. The Amestrian groaned and fell backwards, landing softly and staring up at the dark. What was he looking for, stars? Ed groaned and slammed the back of his head against the ground, shutting his eyes. For a moment there was only more darkness, but then he winced as light flooded his retinas.

He could see a room which was entirely white, not the white of the Gate but the white of a hospital, or a laboratory. There was a man in front of him, wearing a lab coat and a blue shirt with an odd, wood-like pattern on it. “Put those other recombinants to shame.” the man said with a smile, the voice coming to Ed as if through a telephone, close to his ear but with a sense that it had traveled a long ways to reach that point.

“Recombinants?” Edward echoed, frowning. The word was unfamiliar, but the Gate hadn’t robbed him of his intelligence so he knew it was referring to the owner of the eyes he was looking through, and recombining. “Could that mean chimeras?” he wondered aloud.

A voice he almost recognised chuckled, and said “Course. It’s cuz I’m not a recombinant.”

The man ( _Josh_ ) laughed as he pulled odd things ( _sensors_ ) from somewhere outside of the limited range the young alchemist could see, dropping them into a clear ( _plastic, Ziploc_ ) bag. “Oh, really? So what are you, birdie boy?”

The reply was quick, and just a touch defiant. “I’m a chimera.”

Chills ran down the alchemist’s spine as his view shifted, the owner of the eyes he was looking through standing up. He moved with the shifting perspective, getting to his feet clumsily with his eyes shut. It was a child, he realized. He was looking through the eyes of a chimera who was at least partly a human child. His stomach twisted uncomfortably as he remembered Nina, but he forced himself to focus on his current situation. The body his soul had landed in was a child, and he was, for lack of a better term, riding shotgun to the soul which was born in this body. The alchemist clenched his fists, and opened his eyes to look down at his hands. They were both flesh and blood. But how…

The memories of the end of the battle hit him suddenly. Alphonse had sacrificed himself, sending his soul back to his body at the Gate. Ed’s chest tightened, his heart speeding up. He had to undo it. Metal, he needed some metal to make a new armour body. His leg. It wouldn’t be ideal, and Winry would likely murder him when they got back to Resembool, but it was Al’s best chance. Ed grabbed his left pants leg and yanked it up, fully prepared to remove the automail limb with his teeth if need be.

His hands met skin, nails sinking into muscle with a slight sting. The blond froze, staring at the distinctly not metal limb in his grip. His legs were both flesh and blood. He had no way to make a soul-puppet for Al. He could tell his pocket watch wasn’t in any of his pockets, and a body made of fabric was too fragile to support a soul for long. “No. No, there’s got to be a way.” he said firmly, shaking his head and pulling his pants leg back down. “Come on, Ed, **think**. You’re the youngest State Alchemist ever, you can figure this out.”

“Figure what out?”

Ed jumped to his feet, whirling to face the almost-familiar voice. And he immediately realized where he had heard it before. The boy’s eyes were hard gold, their exact shape memorized simply by virtue of being seen every time the teen looked in a mirror. “Who are you?” he fired back, slipping into a defensive stance.

“I’m Birdy.” the kid answered with a grin, looking completely relaxed. “Who’re you? Or should I just call you Little Man In My Head.”

Edward gritted his teeth. Sure he was normal height now, but it still stung to have his stature insulted by a child. “You can call me Ed, or Edward, or Fullmetal, but call me **Little Man In My Head** again and I’ll make you wish you were never born.”

Birdy laughed. Plain, honest, slightly mocking laughter. “Fullmetal sounds like a robot name. I’ll call you that.” he grinned, showing teeth which were unnaturally sharp, if only by the slightest fraction. “You can call me Birdy, by the way.”

Ed shuddered a little. It was like looking in a funhouse mirror, except instead of a stupid wiggly reflection it was a dangerous chimera, whose body he was trapped in. Presumably avian, if the name was anything to go by. “Alright, short stuff.” he said nonchalantly, watching his double’s face. If his theory was right, and this was the original soul of the body he’d landed in, then it was likely their similarities were more than skin deep.

The chimera’s reaction was instantaneous, and Ed only barely dodged the flying punch aimed at his head. “I’m not little!” Birdy howled, turning around for another attack. This time though, the alchemist was prepared for his doppelganger’s inhuman speed. He caught the kid’s arm long before the punch landed, and in seconds the chimera was pinned under his knee.

Up close, Ed could see that the boy was much thinner than a child should be, built entirely of lean muscle and hard angles, with no visible body fat. His limbs were scarred with bite marks, and a pair of brilliant gold wings were folded against his back. “Alright, kid. This is how it’s gonna be. I need this body to get back home and save my brother, so you’re gonna go to sleep, and stay that way for a while.”

Birdy, who had stopped struggling as soon as he was pinned, suddenly vanished. “I don’t think so, Fullmetal.” he sneered, voice echoing from everywhere. “I think I’m going to ignore you, and keep living my own life.”

Ed groaned and held his head in his hands. This was going to be harder than he’d thought.

\---

Days passed in a blur of tests and never-quite-satisfactory meals, and Edward silently watched all of it. At first glance he thought Birdy’s lead scientist was Izumi, but after a few days he disregarded that as wishful thinking. He had no way of knowing if her soul had entered a body that looked like she had in Amestris, and the scientist was coldly distant in a way that Izumi had never been. The assistants called her Boss and Mrs. Scary, and her ID was never out of her pocket for more than the few seconds needed to unlock a door, so he didn’t even know her name. And yet, despite telling himself a million times that it was nothing more than a passing resemblance, Edward payed more attention when Birdy looked at her than when he looked at the assistants.

He noticed the half-smile she always seemed to have for Birdy, how her harsh glare softened ever so slightly whenever the young chimera cracked a joke, no matter how tasteless it was. Ed was no expert with emotions, but even an idiot would know love when he saw it, and Boss Scary definitely loved Birdy. Her touch was rarely gentle, but when his vessel outdid himself her smile glowed with pride. When Birdy’s legs were too weak to walk after a test she carried him back to his room without complaint, no matter how bloody or sweaty the child was. When Birdy blacked out from pain or exhaustion, she was always the first thing he saw when he came back to himself. When he needed to be patched up she had an assistant fetch the first aid kit and knelt next to him, voice steady and soothing as she cleaned and bandaged the wounds.

A few times Edward thought he heard her humming snatches of a familiar lullaby, or that when she shouted at Birdy he recognized the phrases, or even that once she nearly started to say another name while reprimanding the chimera for damaging a piece of equipment. But it was all wishful thinking, of course, and Ed knew it. Boss Scary was just a normal employee, albeit one who thought of Birdy as her son.

Weeks passed, and one day Edward found himself looking out on a small boy. He knew this must be a test of some sort, everything was, but he hardly noticed the large mirror on one wall or the tub of colourful plastic the other child sat next to. There was a heartbreakingly familiar boy sitting on the floor, wearing a face Ed hadn’t seen in far too many years. Despite himself he tried to reach out, to hug the child who couldn’t be anyone but his brother’s double. “Al?” he asked, half praying to the nonexistant gods that it was truly Alphonse, that his brother came through the Gate like he did and now resided in this body.

Birdy cocked his head, hands hanging at his sides. “Al?”

The kid shook his head, dashing what small hopes Edward had allowed himself. “My name’s Ari. You’re Birdy, right?”

The chimera shrugged. “I guess so.”

In an instant, Edward saw how Ari and Birdy’s interaction would unfold. Ari would say something careless, Birdy would snap, and it would end in bloodshed. It took a tremendous effort of will, like clawing his way out of the Gate all over again, but Ed forced the chimera’s soul down into the back of his mind and assumed control. The body felt natural to command, and he knelt a few feet in front of his brother’s double. If Birdy was his funhouse mirror reflection, Ari was a photograph of Alphonse. His hair was the same colour, his face the same shape as it was in all the old photographs in the Rockbell house, his hair was even sticking up in the back like it used to when he didn’t brush it in the morning. The only difference was in Ari’s eyes, blue where Al’s were golden green, a subtle reminder that this was not his brother but a doppelganger.

Realizing that Ari was still looking at him curiously, Ed chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. “But you can call me whatever you like.”

Ari frowned. “How come?”

Ed shrugged, letting his wings fall open a little, and made a note of the child’s lack of reaction. Either Ari had a pair hidden under his zigzag black-on-yellow shirt, or he’d seen chimera before. “It’s a sorta funny name, innit?” 

The smaller blonde grinned, and Ed mirrored the expression fondly before looking around the room. They were being observed, which meant he was supposed to do something. Was he just supposed to talk with Ari? He supposed that would make a bit of sense, testing how he reacted to beings which were neither superior nor enemy.

Ari, ignorant to the Amestrian’s internal debate, reached into the tub of plastic and pulled out two handfuls of bricks. “They told me we get to play with all these Legos.” he grinned, holding one hand out for Ed to take the toys.

After learning how the blocks worked, a clever interlocking system he made note of for future use, Ed convinced the boy to help him build a rough duplicate of the Rockbell house, complete with a ponytailed girl on the porch with an “apple pie” made of one flat grey block and one brown circle block. The kid was escorted away by an Eraser after a while of telling nonsensical stories with the little yellow-skinned figurines, and Ed glanced at the mirror-window the scientists were watching from behind.

Turning back to the Legos, he carefully disassembled the odds and ends Ari had cobbled together, sorting them by colour and size. Almost ten minutes of digging in the bin produced most of the black and beige blocks, and he set to work building a road. First he sent it to the graveyard, where he made a white fence and grey headstones, placing two blonde doctors and a woman with brown hair in their respective places. From there he built it to his house, and began using the blacks to construct the ruins.

He’d just finished balancing the tree when the door opened to admit a pair of Erasers, and he glanced at the mirrored glass as he was hauled off. As he was marched down the hall, Edward felt a tug at the back of his mind, and with a sigh let Birdy back into command. Back in the darkness of Birdy’s skull, he smiled grimly. A body wouldn’t reject its own doubled soul, his very existence proved that, and if he could get his hands on the necessary materials he might still be able to save Al.

He closed his eyes as Birdy was brought into a room with a paper covered table and an unfamiliar blond scientist.

“Who’re you?” the chimera asked innocently.

The man didn’t answer, and Ed opened his eyes when the scientist pulled out a needle. The world vanished, and he could still hear, but he couldn’t feel or see the needle which was undoubtedly being pressed into Birdy’s arm.

“That hurts.” the chimera whined. “Where’s Mrs. Scary? It doesn’t hurt when she does it.”

“Mrs. Lehrer and her team been assigned to another experiment.” the scientist said brusquely. “You’re with me now, Subject hgi.”

Ed frowned, and sensed Birdy mirroring the expression. “How come?”

“Hell if I know, but you should be thankful you wound up with me. I’ve worked with your kind before, so I’ve got clearance to put you in the wind tunnel.”

Birdy perked up immediately. “I get to fly?”

“You’re going to be flying ‘til your wings fall off, hgi.”

Ed bit the inside of his cheek, loathe to ask his chimera host for anything, but after a moment he said. “Ask about Ari. Are we gonna see him again?”

“Will I get to play with Ari again?”

“Maybe, maybe not. But I can tell you you’ll be eating with my team from now on.”

Ed’s heart sank even as Birdy beamed. “How many people will there be? Will I get to talk to them? What sorta food do you guys eat? How much will I get?”

“Whoa, hgi. Slow down there. You’ll get as much food as you need to do the tests, and you’ll get to talk to the other Recomb. I can’t promise anything else.”

“Oh boy oh boy oh boy!” Birdy smiled.

\---

Elsewhere in the facility, a woman who had meant to be a mother sat at a desk, sketching a scene to the best of her memory. When it was done, she tacked it up next to the pictures of Subject hgi’s Lego creation, adding it to the corkboard collage. She would no longer be able to see the child she’d taken into her heart as her own, but perhaps it was for the best. Turning back to her computer, she opened Word and began typing up her final report on Experiment F87053hgi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hgi is meant to be said h-g-i, like FBI. This story will include other original recombinants labelled in a similar way.


	3. Chapter 3

Ed looked at the dog crate with disdain, Birdy with outright disgust. “Do I hafta sleep in that?”

“Just get in the cage, Feathers.” an unfamiliar voice said from behind them. Birdy turned, tilting his head as he look at the new person. Too young to be a scientist, so they had to be another chimera.

“Who’re you?”

The girl said nothing, just made a “tch” sound and walked over to one of the other dog crates, shutting the door behind herself.

“That’s Subject mbj.” the blonde scientist smiled wryly. “It’s an acinonyx recombinant, the first successful one.”

Ed racked his brains, but Birdy spoke up before he could remember what animal the word connected to. “Acid on icks?”

The scientist chuckled. “Cheetah.”

“What’s a cheetah?” Birdy asked.

“You’ll figure it out, hgi. Now get in your cage before I have to kick you in there.”

Birdy grumbled, but crouched and shuffled into the beige plastic container. The door shut behind them with a click, and Ed felt a chill run down his spine.

“Alright, hgi. You go to sleep like a good little experiment, ya hear me? Got lots of tests to run tomorrow.”

Birdy fell asleep quickly, and though Edward wanted to listen in on the scientists, he followed soon after.

\---

Edward woke to large hands roughly dragging Birdy roughly from his cage out into cold rain. There was a reddish brown track, and a fence beyond that separating the testing area from the woods beyond. Ed shivered, but when Birdy was told to run, he ran. Ed startled as a hand was placed on his shoulder.

“Fuck, could you quit sneaking up on me?”

Birdy gave a familiar shit-eating grin, and Ed felt a sudden flash of sympathy for Mustang. “Nah. But I wanna talk to you.”

“About what.” the taller blond asked suspiciously.

“Well, what do you think of our new room?”

“I liked the old one better.”

Birdy frowned. “How come? This one’s got more people, and it’s warmer too.”

“Hello, they’re making us sleep in a damn dog cage. That doesn’t seem just a little bit wrong to you?”

“Well, they’re scientists, and I’m a chimera.” Birdy shrugged. “It wouldn’t make sense for me to sleep in a bed like them, now would it?”

Ed groaned and dropped his head into his hands. “No, no, no. You’re a human chimera, which means you’re as good as any other human. You’re a person, and people don’t sleep in dog crates.”

“But I do sleep in a dog crate. And it’s not really that bad, it’s actually kinda cozy.”

“It’s official, you’re an idiot.”

Birdy frowned and huffed, crossing his arms. “You take that back.”

“No.” Ed scowled, feeling rather childish. Was he really arguing over a dumb insult?

Birdy vanished as suddenly as he had appeared, and Ed heard an echoing voice say “I’m not dumb, Fullmetal’s the dumb one.” he facepalmed, and watched in silent disdain as Birdy cooperated with the scientists. Boss Scary treated the kid as a person, called him by his name, and though the tests were hard Birdy was rarely run to exhaustion. These assholes only ever called him by letter designation, and then it was never to do anything but give him orders. Run faster, get up, keep moving, get in the damn cage.

That evening, Birdy sat on the floor next to two other chimeras and ate his food without utensils. Ed watched the other two, a boy with one white wing and one black, and a girl with pinkish scales that changed colour when she got excited or angry. They ate like they were starving animals, like the near-feral Ishvalan girl who’d come through Resembool not long after the Rockbells left. Birdy began nodding off as soon as his plate was cleared, and Edward seized the chance. The chimera didn’t resist, and Ed blinked into control of their shared body.

The younger avian chimera had one wing around the lizard girl, and was wiping at her forehead with a dirty napkin. “Don’t worry, there’s no numbers on your neck.” he whispered quietly.

“What would numbers mean?” Ed asked, letting his wings unfold slightly as he scooted over to sit on the other side of the scaly chick.

“Where’ve you been, under a rock?” the black haired bird kid snapped.

Ed held up his hands, noting that this other avian chimera had normal human teeth. “Whoa, sorry.”

“Lev, he’s the new one. Cut him some slack.” the lizard girl chided, then turned to Ed with a weak smile. “When an experiment is about to expire, numbers show up on the back of their neck.” she sneezed, and the avian chimera’s wing tightened around her.

“And you’ve just got a cold, Pammie.” Lev reassured her. “Don’t worry your pretty head about it.”

Her scales became more red, and Ed smiled slightly. “So, you change colour depending on your emotions?”

“Actually, yeah.” she shuffled a bit, shifting to a crouch under her friend’s protective wing. Her scales faded from red into a greenish gold, tapering to brown at her fingers and toes, and Ed’s mouth fell open slightly.

“That’s amazing. Are you part chameleon?” he reached out and ran his fingers over her shoulder. The scales were smooth and cool, tightly packed to form a second skin which rippled minutely as Pammie wrapped her arms around her knees.

“Yeah. But I’m not really good at blending.”

Some of the scientists stood, and Lev got to his feet as well.

“ljv.” one of them said firmly, snapping their fingers as if calling a dog. Ed bristled, but Lev walked towards the white-coated woman without complaint or hesitation.

“pma, get over here.” one of the scientists at the table said sharply, and the chameleon girl flinched.

A moment later, though, she stood and shuffled over to the one who had called her. Ed gritted his teeth, balling his hands into fists and repressing the urge to start tearing the scientists a new one. He would have to escape before he could bring Al’s soul over and bond it to Ari’s body, and escape would be much harder if he made a reputation as troublesome.

“Look at this.” the scientist who’d called on Pammie said scornfully, lifting one of her arms. “How am I supposed to get this thing to pass strength regulations if they keep denying me the clearance to test on it?” The man’s hand tightened on her wrist, and Edward’s shoulders tensed. “It’s bad enough mjb got shunted over to Jameson’s team.”

“hgi, c’mere.” their new lead scientist snapped his fingers, and Ed trembled with barely contained rage as he was loaded into a dog crate. He had to get out of here before his own expiration code appeared, for Al’s sake if nothing else, but now it was more than that. Now he needed to save these two chimeras as well.

\---

Once he’d taken control of their shared body, it was easy to keep. Birdy seemed more than content to nap in the back of his head, only waking occasionally to provide Ed with information. It took a solid week and a half to finger comb his hair into something resembling neatness, though it would take a good long shower for him to feel human again. But then, he wasn’t human anymore, was he? Still, he was mostly human, so he had to get out of here and find a way to bind Al’s soul to his doppelganger’s body. And while he was at it, the other human chimeras should be freed too.

Lev and Pammie were easy to convince, eager to escape their cages, and the three of them began to scheme whenever they were unsupervised. A month later, however, they were no closer to finding a way out, let alone locating Ari on the way. Then, one day, the door opened and an Eraser stepped into the room. Pammie pressed herself into the back of her cage, and her skin went grey-beige with fear. Even a second earlier and it would've heard them talking, plotting, discussing how to break out of here.

Ed didn’t shrink back, but he didn’t press himself against the mesh door either, remaining crouched in the middle of the dog crate. “What are you doing in here?” he asked, trying and not quite succeeding at keeping his voice level.

“Subjects hgi and lcv, you’re needed for experiments.” the wolf-man said, and its voice sent the hairs on Ed’s neck prickling. This one sounded different, **wrong**. The cage door swung open, and Ed was out in a flash. Heavy cuffs slapped around his wrists, not heavy enough to make him collapse but definitely enough to keep his arms down and make flying away really damn hard. The door was shut, too, and with the cuffs on he couldn’t exactly pick the Eraser’s pocket for its key card.

“What sort of experiments?” he asked, standing as tall as he could. Seriously, the worst part of this whole thing had to be the fact that Birdy was still so **small**.

“Dunno.” the Eraser shrugged, cuffing Lev as the smaller bird kid stood up. “Didn’t ask.” it turned around, and Ed’s heart leapt into his throat with so much force he thought he might be sick. The Eraser was wearing Al’s face, stretched and distorted over a foreign bone structure but unmistakably his baby brother. It- **he** \- cocked his head and looked at Ed curiously. “Birdy?”

The word had Birdy stirring in the back of his head, and Ed shook himself mentally. This wasn’t Al. Al was at the Gate, waiting for Ed to pull him back to the land of the living. But if the Eraser with Al’s face wasn’t Al, then who was it? “Blue eyes.” he breathed, shoulders slumping as he remembered. “You’re that kid. The one they had me using those building block things with.”

“Birdy?” Lev looked confused. Ed shook his head briefly.

“Old nickname from my last scientist.” he looked back up at the Eraser, at the boy who could’ve been a vessel for his brother’s soul in this world, and a frown pulled at his mouth. “What happened to you?”

“Let’s walk and talk.” Ari suggested, carding the door open. Lev stepped up next to Ed as soon as they were in the hallway, and Ari trailed behind them by a few steps, looking every inch their Eraser escort/guard.

“What happened, A-ri?” Ed almost said his brother’s name, but caught himself just in time. Ari and Lev were children, and not the brilliant kind like he and Al had been. Explaining his situation to them was not something he wanted to waste time doing. Lucky for him, neither Ari nor Lev seemed to catch his near-slip, and his little brother’s way-too-tall doppelganger started talking.

“They needed bodies for an experiment.” he said quietly, hands curling into fists in Ed’s peripheral vision. “Dr. Madds was trying to see if they could make Erasers by putting the DNA in after birth instead of before. I’m the only one that made it.”

Ed realized he was clenching his fists so hard his automail would be creaking if he still had it, and forced himself to relax a bit. “That’s fucked up.” he said, not bothering to keep his voice neutral. This boy was even more like Al now, robbed of the childhood he deserved by scientists trying to play God. “I swear, Ari, I’m gonna get you away from these bastards.”

“How?” Ari asked, a note of hope in his confused tone.

“Ed!” Lev hissed, elbowing him in the ribs. “You can’t tell an **Eraser** that!”

“I can, and I will.” Ed glared at the dark haired avian chimera. “Ari’s like us, he never asked to be experimented on.”

Ari’s fingers flexed in Ed’s peripheral vision, and he shook off the memory of Al’s armour hands doing the same thing when he was ashamed. He’d failed his little brother in one universe, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let this world’s Al down.

“The School is super secured, though.” Ari said, his voice laced with a familiar concern, even if he spoke with a growl instead of a tinny half-echo.

“Don’t worry about that.” Ed waved a hand as nonchalantly as he could with both of them hanging cuffed in front of him. He summoned a smirk to his face, the one that made bad guys remember that despite his age and appearance, the Fullmetal Alchemist was far from a weak and helpless child, and spun on his heel to walk backwards facing Ari. “We’re coming up with a plan.”


	4. Chapter 4

Six months passed, and the plan slowly came together. Ari would slip one of them a key card, and at 10 PM they would leave the room. Their route had been carefully calculated, and several backup routes drawn just in case. They picked the date a month ahead of time, so Ari could arrange for all of the scientists to be out of the room and the Eraser guard to be otherwise occupied. And finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, the night came.

Lev unlocked his cage, and tumbled out gracelessly. Edward followed suite moments later, crawling past the mesh door and shaking out his wings for a few seconds. A minute passed, and Pammie didn’t move. Lev frowned, and knelt in front of her cage to unlock the door for her. “C’mon, Pam. We gotta go, or we’re gonna be late.”

No reply. Ed felt a chill run down his spine. “Pammie, come on, wake up.” he whispered tensely, reaching into the dog crate to shake her shoulder. She usually ran cool, but this was different. Her body was colder than ever, and Lev made a distressed sound.

“Is she-”

“We gotta go.” Ed said quickly, standing up and grabbing the younger boy’s shoulder. He couldn’t stop now, not when this world’s Al was counting on him. “She wouldn’t have wanted us to get caught because of her.”

“Y-yeah.” Levi sniffled, blinking hard.

Edward gritted his teeth, and swiped the card on the door. Sure enough, the Eraser guard who was supposed to be there was nowhere in sight. The pair of winged children scuttled down the hallway, turning corners in a path they’d memorized ages ago. Right, left, left again, right to avoid the patrol, left… Ed’s heartbeat hammered in his ears, and every inch of his skin prickled. If anything had been overlooked, they were so-

Alarms began to wail, and both chimeras nearly jumped out of their skin.

“Fire drill?” Lev suggested weakly.

“Change of plans.” Ed growled, grabbing his friend’s wrist as an Eraser rounded the corner. “Run!”

They bolted, retracing their path with an Eraser on their tail. Every door would open with this key card, even under lockdown. Ari had assured him of that. Oh, why hadn’t they just pulled the fire alarm?

Rounding a corner into a long hallway, Lev tried to backpedal. A wall of Erasers had formed on the other end, and was steadily advancing towards them.

“We gotta go back!”

The Eraser behind them roared again, and Ed made a split-second decision. “Follow me!” he yelled, bolting down a side hallway. They’d deemed it too risky to even be a last resort, but that had been when they had to account for Pammie. If he and Lev could make it to the track, maybe they could still double back to the bunks and pick up Ari. The door at the end of the hall burst open when he rammed his shoulder into it at full speed, and though he’d have an impressive bruise there in a few hours it was worth it. The track spread out in front of them, and Edward fairly threw his friend away from the electrified fence.

“Up and away! Go!”

Lev didn’t need any further encouragement, sprinting towards the middle of the field and spreading his wings to their full ten foot width. One flap, two, and he was airborne, flying free for the first time in his short life. Ed whooped, only a few short steps behind the younger chimera, but as he spread his own golden wings Lev fell out of the sky.

Edward pulled his wings in again, and sprinted over to where his friend was lying on the ground, convulsing, a pair of wires coming off of his back. Ed leapt to his feet, and whirled to face the Erasers and scientists spilling into the yard. Ari wasn’t with them, which meant he was back at the barracks. And with Lev incapacitated…

“hgi, stop!”

Ed bolted, bare feet gripping the track and adrenaline spurring him to run faster than ever before. He came up on a scientist, the woman who’d been in charge of him before he met Ari, and she tried to grab him. Even if this body didn’t have the muscle memory of Izumi’s training, he still knew it in his head, and his chimera muscles were strong enough that he could flip her onto her back and keep running. She didn’t get up.

“Don’t let it take off!” another scientist called, and Ed realized he’d almost forgotten his most important advantage. He could fly.

Three steps, three beats of his wings, and he was curving tight arcs around the track, gaining a good ten feet with every loop. Bullets peppered the air, and a pair of wires arced just over his legs, but by some miracle he managed to get up into. Ed hovered for a moment, or rather, made small loops around the track. Lev was being cuffed now, and the Erasers around him all had guns tracking Ed through the sky. Too risky, if he got caught he would be stuck in there forever, and he couldn’t save Al if he was in need of saving himself.

There was a flash from one of the muzzles, and Ed registered the light just as a searing pain ripped through his right wing. Shot. They’d just shot him! He had to land, he was already losing altitude. How long would it take for a bullet wound to heal? He had no clue, they’d never tested him that far. He hit the ground outside the fence running, and immediately began weaving through the dense foliage in a desperate attempt to slow the Erasers on his tail, if only for a moment. A moment could be the difference between freedom and recapture.

He winced only slightly at the rough terrain, though the forest seemed to be throwing every sharp twig and rock and plant right under his feet. The trees and bushes grabbed at his arms, fairly shredding the light fabric of his shirtsleeves and leaving long, thin scratches. A loud noise made him stumble, earning another shallow cut near his shoulder, and Ed picked up the pace. Erasers he could outrun, outsmart, probably even outfight if there were only a few of them. Bloodhounds were a whole nother story, especially while his wing was still dripping brilliant crimson into his feathers and onto the ground.

Weak light filtered through the trees ahead and the preteen began to properly sprint, heedless of the trail he was leaving. Hurdling a scrubby looking bush, he yelled and had to pitch himself backwards to avoid falling straight off the edge of the cliff. For a moment he thought he would make it, that he’d be able to pick himself up and keep going with no more than a dirt stain on his butt. Then the edge of the cliff scraped against his back and he was falling, plummeting down and down into the canyon.

It was more instinct than intellect which made him throw his wings open, catching wind like a parachute. The sudden drag nearly yanked them out of their sockets, and his injured wing screamed in agony at the sudden stress, but he gritted his teeth against the pain and flapped. It took a few moments, but he climbed about halfway up the canyon and began soaring down its length. Behind him were Erasers and bloodhounds, a chimera he’d promised to protect, and Ari. Ahead, a world as alien to him as Amestris had been to Mei.

He didn’t look back.

\---

It felt like he spent hours wandering through the air before he spotted somewhere to land which would be easily defensible in case Erasers came calling. He tucked his wings in a second too early, and his already bruised shoulder clipped the lower edge of the cave's entrance as he tumbled in. He was out cold before he even stopped rolling.

The sun on his face woke him, and Ed groaned into the sandy floor. His wing was on fire, an all-too-familiar sensation in an unfamiliar location, and he forced himself to rise to his hands and knees. There was a lake nearby, and he had no clue if he'd be able to fly with wet feathers but there was a bullet hole in his right wing and the last thing he needed to do was develop an infection. He just had to hope the water was clean.

It was, thank every god which likely didn't exist, and when he climbed out he was fairly certain his wings were cleaner than they'd ever been back at the facility. Okay so he didn't have any soap or shampoo or whatever the hell you were supposed to use on feathers, but it wasn't like showers had been a regular thing when he was a test subject. The sky was clear, the wind pleasantly cool, and he was free.

If Ari and Lev were here, it'd be close to perfect.

Ari... he'd left the copy of his brother behind and hadn't looked back. He’d broken his promise, he’d failed... Ed shook his head, striking the heel of his hand against his temple. No, he could still keep his promise. The plan had hinged on not tripping the alarm, and getting far enough away that he and Lev could carry their friends in turns to destroy their trail. Maybe they would’ve glided Ari and Pammie down to the canyon floor and walked along the riverbank, maybe they would’ve flown over it and gone that way. But he couldn’t have done either of those without Lev, let alone with a hole in his wing.

Ed sighed, and began picking the night’s tangles out of his hair along with twigs and leaves from last night’s run through the woods. He’d have to figure out how to get back in without being caught, and how to get Ari out of there. They couldn’t count on being able to fly away anymore, not when Lev was going to be under significantly heavier guard now, so that meant they’d need some other way of outpacing the Erasers and bloodhounds. Maybe he could find and steal a car? If medical science was this far advanced, then they had to have cars. Hotwiring one couldn’t be that hard.

Yeah, he’d get his hands on a getaway car and once he’d kept his promise to Ari, he could- what, bring Al’s soul back from the Gate just to stick him in a body even worse than bhis armour? Ari had admitted that he might have an expiration date, and the thought of watching Al **die** , seeing his chest stop moving and feeling his skin go cold... it was too much for Ed to bear. His little brother had spent too long as a metal shell to be consigned to the body of a test subject. If he was going to save Alphonse from an eternity sitting in front of the Gate, he was going to do it right. Maybe if he could make a body without life, and then jump start it somehow... The Amestrian shook his head. Necessities first. He couldn't save Ari **or** Al if he starved to death thinking.

Snares were still easy to make, and he set them outside the burrow entrances he could find. Piecing a fishing hook together was significantly harder, and he had no bait yet, but he'd seen some good sized fish in the water and he preferred it to rabbit. And if he stayed here for any significant length of time, having two sources of food could possibly save his life. Should his snares catch nothing, he'd have backup.

A massive raptor landed next to him, a rabbit dangling from its beak, and Ed shook his wings out slightly. The bird regarded them for a moment, then set down its prey and started eating. Gross.

Lunch was fish, gutted with a sharp rock he found between the cliff and shore. Dinner was a rabbit, the only one he'd caught, skinned and prepared with the same stone. It had nothing on the knife Izumi had left them when they spent a month on Yock Island, but it beat the hell out of his bare hands.

When the fire burnt down, he sat on the ledge just to the left of the cave entrance and looked up at the stars. Years of traveling had left plenty of time to memorize every constellation, even if he knew precisely none of their stories. He knew every one, where they sat in the sky in each part of the country in each season, the best times and places to see certain ones. He didn't recognize a single star in this sky. Well, that one was probably the north star, but nothing else made sense.

After a few hours of stargazing, the Amestrian sighed and kicked the dead coals of his fire out of the cave. His wing was already feeling better, probably thanks to the bullet's small caliber, the fact that it punched straight through, and his apparently incredible healing time. He'd have to find a town to get a car from, and while he was there he could find a library and refresh his knowledge of human anatomy. Then he'd have to actually save Ari from the School and collect Al's soul from the Gate, but compared to making a functioning body those would be a piece of cake.


	5. Chapter 5

Ed paused in midair, the hawks still wheeling around him, and looked down at the shadowed hole in the cliff face. It might have been his imagination, but he could’ve sworn he just saw two large figures enter his cave. It was unlikely any normal humans would bother coming all the way out here, especially since he hadn’t found any paths or roads in the immediate vicinity, which left Erasers. He started circling again, working the newly regenerated muscles in his shot wing, and his mouth pressed into a thin line.

The Erasers probably thought he hadn’t noticed them, which meant they would probably try to ambush him if he landed at the cave entrance. Erasers were never sent out in pairs, though, so the rest of the pack was probably scattered throughout the surrounding area. He did have his knife rock, and he’d done some training after waking up to start getting this body used to fighting, so if he dove in instead of landing calmly at the opening he could use the element of surprise to take out one of the wolfy bastards. Taking down the second would be a test of skill, but if worst came to worst, well, he could always fly away and find somewhere else to hole up while he planned and prepared.

Hell, he could just fly off now, but this was a really nice spot. Clean water, plentiful food, defensible shelter. Finding another place like this could be really hard. And, since they were probably under orders to bring him back alive for further experimentation, any weapons they may have were more or less empty threats. Ah, what the hell, he and Al had won fights with worse odds.

Ed turned, and dove for the cave entrance. There was a shout of surprise, and he lashed out towards the sound with a kick as his eyes struggled to adjust to the dimness of the cave. His heel connected with air, and he settled back into a defensive stance as the last of the spots cleared from his eyes. The figures pressed against the back wall... definitely weren’t Erasers. Ed blinked, processing the scene. There were two children in front of him, the paler one no more than sixteen and the darker one likely closer to his current body’s age.

The older one, a boy, was crouched in front of the younger brown-skinned girl in an unmistakably protective way, shielding her with his body. His dark eyes were narrowed, assessing the threat to his friend, while hers were wide in fear. A shiny bag with the words Dried Apricots printed near the top was clutched in the girl’s hands, and a pair of backpacks laid on the floor. They were just kids, probably climbers who decided to rest in the shade for a snack. Still, they’d seen his wings, and Ed was pretty sure that wasn’t a good thing.

He crossed his arms and pulled himself up to his full height, leaving his wings partially unfurled. “Who are you?” he asked, using his most authoritative tone. The girl’s eyes widened further, but the boy just continued to glare silently and shifted into a more defensive stance, like he was expecting an attack. Ed gritted his teeth, and flared his wings slightly so the ends of his biggest feathers brushed the cave walls. “I said, **who are you**?” he repeated, keeping his eyes on the pair of kids. Even if one of them was older than him, the wings should probably help with the intimidation factor. “Why are you here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Goldilocks.” the boy spat, and something about his tone made Ed hesitate. It was almost familiar, but then he lunged and Ed lost that train of thought as he hastily blocked, wings snapping tight against his back. He staggered backwards, and in under a second the taller boy had him pinned. Damn, he had seriously overestimated this body’s fighting capabilities. But the edge of the cliff was close, and if he could get his wings free...

“Get off of me!” he yelled, bucking and twisting until he got an arm free enough to elbow the older boy in the chest. He rolled away before he could be trapped again, and sprang to his feet. Something was off about the taller boy, he was too light for his size, and the musculature of his chest had felt wrong when Ed dug his elbow into it. They must be connected to the School, prototype Erasers meant to blend in better or something like that. “I’m not going back!” he yelled, making a sweeping gesture with his right arm as he backed up towards the edge of the cliff.

“You mean you’re not from the School?” the girl spoke up at last, eyes still wide.

“Like you don’t know.” Ed snapped, eyes flicking from his opponent to the girl who looked about his size. He wouldn’t make it out without distracting the bigger one, so that meant he had to keep talking. “They sent you to get me back, right?”

“No!” the girl cried, bag of dried fruit crinkling in her hands. “We thought you were from there, trying to take us back!” her shoulders slumped slightly, and Ed felt a pang of pity for her. “They already took Angel.”

She was either a fantastic actress, or telling the truth. Ed was inclined to believe the latter. He lowered his fists, and shifted out of his fighting stance. “I’m so sorry.” he said quietly. “I know the feeling.”

“What’s your name?” the taller of the two strangers asked, still poised to strike at Ed given the slightest provocation.

“Edward Elric.” he answered automatically, moving to tuck his hands in pockets which weren’t there. He’d need to get proper clothes sooner than later, especially if he was planning on interacting with non-chimeras. “What’re yours’?”

“Fang.” the boy said, straightening up and lowering his fists.

“I’m Nudge.” the girl beamed, her joy like a tangible force against Fang’s wariness. “I never thought we’d meet another bird kid!” she tossed the bag in her hands over towards the backpacks, and bounded over to Ed. “Yours are so yellow!” she reached out to touch his wings, which had fallen slightly open when he relaxed his posture, and Ed pulled them tight to his body again.

“Another?” he asked cautiously, eyes flicking between the two kids. “We?”

Fang sighed, and whacked Nudge on the back of the head. “Yes. We’ve got wings.”

His flat, disinterested tone was a bit infuriating, but Ed more or less forgot about that when Fang unfolded a single jet black wing from his back. Somehow, even after sharing a room with Lev, it hadn’t crossed his mind that there might be other human-avian chimeras besides the two of them.

“Are they both that colour?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. Fang had the same type of nose as Lev did, and the same dark eyes that reminded him of the Xingese royalty he’d met back home. If Fang had the same mismatched wings, there was basically no way they weren’t siblings.

“Yes?” Fang frowned, curling his wing back in until it was flush with his back. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Lev’s got one black wing one white, and he looks a bit like you.” Ed shrugged. “Thought you might be brothers or something.”

“There are other bird kids at the School?!” Nudge squawked, eyes widening. Fang said nothing, but his eyes widened a little bit too.

“Why don’t we sit down?” Nudge suggested nervously, taking a seat next to the backpacks.

“Good idea.” Fang frowned, walking over and sitting next to her. Ed sat across from them at a respectful distance, and the look Fang levelled at him gave the distinct impression that despite being closer to the cave mouth, he wasn’t the one in control of this situation. It was a familliar feeling, Mustang had pinned him with that look far too many times during his tenure as a State Alchemist. He hated it.

“I got out yesterday.” Ed supplied, crossing his legs and resting his hands on his knees.

“Did you see Angel come in?” Nudge asked hopefully, her brown eyes wide.

Ed shook his head. “Lev and I tried our escape at night, but all our scientists did get called away to help with tests on a new arrival. That was probably her.” he tried to offer an apologetic smile, but it felt more like a grimace on his face. He’d failed Lev, he’d failed Ari, and he hadn’t even paid enough attention to the scientists to realize there was another kid he should’ve tried to rescue.

“Well, she’s definitely there.” Nudge grinned, leaning forward to pat one of Ed’s hands. The grin faded quickly, though, and she looked over at Fang. “Where’s Max?” she asked, and Ed got the strangest feeling. Just for a second there was an impression of loyalty, admiration, and worry. Nudge kept talking, but none of her words really registered until he caught the word Lake.

“Lake Mead?” he asked, tilting his head slightly to the side. “Is that what the lake down there is called?” he gestured out of the cave, and Fang nodded.

“Max saw someone in trouble, down below.” Fang said quietly to Nudge. “We’ll wait for her here.”

More worry flashed through Ed, and he shook his head doggedly. What was he worried about? He stood up, muttered something about stretching his wings, and launched himself out into the warm afternoon sunlight. The fresh air on his face helped clear his head, but when Fang swooped up next to him Ed felt nauseating worry and steely resolve threatening to overwhelm him.

He dove down to glide over the lake, trailing his fingers along the surface and kicking up a pleasant mist. What was wrong with him today? He couldn’t be near Fang or Nudge without his head going all weird and filling up with random emotions. But he didn’t want to leave, either. They were headed to the School to orchestrate a breakout, same as him. Maybe they even had a plan. Maybe they could help him carry Ari and he wouldn’t have to figure out how to drive a car!

Maybe maybe maybe. Maybe he should get his damn head on straight and figure out what was up with his emotions. He was worried about Al of course, and about his brother’s doppelganger in this world, and about Lev, but he’d **been** worried about them since before Fang and Nudge arrived. He wasn’t really that worried about Angel, not if she had three friends heading in to rescue her, and the Max the other chimeras had talked about seemed to be their leader, so there was probably no point in worrying about him either.

“Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout?” Nudge asked when he rose back up to circle with the hawks. The worry came back like a sucker punch, but he was braced for it this time. Maybe something about being a chimera meant his emotions were heightened around other people? No, if that was the case he would’ve gone mental before he even got out of the School. Maybe it only worked on other avian chimera? That would make sense. Around Lev he’d always been more determined to escape, and the younger chimera seemed to be a pretty one-track guy.

“A friend.” he answered after a minute.

“The bird kid you’re going back for?” Nudge asked, tilting her wings and gliding closer. Ed nodded, and tried to put his sudden inexorable curiosity out of mind. As much as he’d love to figure out how they were all put together, asking about it seemed really rude. “It’s so pretty up here.” Nudge said after another moment, looking towards the horizon with a smile. “And I love flying. I mean, all those kids on the ground have school and homework and stuff and we’re just free up here!”

Ed couldn’t help but mirror her smile, honest joy overwhelming his curiosity. “It is pretty neat, yeah.” he looked down at the landscape spread out below them. Al would love this, the feel of wind in his feathers, of being supported by the air alone. If he did build a body for his brother instead of using Ari as a host, then maybe he’d build one with wings.


	6. Chapter 6

Ed woke slowly, and registered his surroundings in stages. Hard ground, darker on one side than the other, the sound of wind but no wind actually on his skin, no jacket draped over him or bundled up for a pillow. The last thing made him blink to a marginally more alert state and push himself into a mostly upright sitting position. “Al?” he mumbled, looking around the cave.

There was another person a few feet away, a little girl with dark skin and a roundish face. She was curled up on her side, smiling slightly. Two backpacks, a disturbance of the sand on the floor where someone else had slept, but nothing to suggest a suit of armour had been there. Ed got to his feet, and his brain finally clicked into full gear. Right, there was no trace of Al because Al wasn’t here. His baby brother was still at the Gate, waiting for Ed to bring him home.

Ed walked over to the edge of the cliff, and looked up at the wheeling hawks. Sure enough, there was Fang. He should probably ask the older chimera about getting a change of clothes. His loose pants from the School weren’t meant for sleeping rough, and the thin fabric was already beginning to fray at the hems. He could fix them with alchemy, of course, but they’d still be shitty and he’d still be shirtless so getting new clothes was really the better option here.

“Morning.” he said as he glided up next to the dark-winged boy. Fang just nodded at him, acknowledging his presence. “You wouldn’t happen to have a change of clothes, would you? These are kinda falling apart.” Ed gestured to his current pants, and Fang looked him over silently.

“Nothing that’d fit you.” he said after a lengthy silence.

Anger flared in Ed’s chest, and he gritted his teeth. It wasn’t a comment about his height, it _wasn’t_.

“Nudge might have some spare jeans, but you’d have to cuff them.” Fang mused, and had he been standing Ed probably would’ve staggered as Birdy suddenly roared to life and wrested away control of their body.

“ **WHO’S SO SMALL YOU CAN’T SEE HIM WITH A MICROSCOPE?!** ” the blond chimera howled, twisting and making to tackle Fang out of the sky. Fang dodged, thankfully, and Ed forced Birdy back down into the back of his mind before they could fall more than a few yards.

“What the hell?!” Fang yelled down, and Ed gritted his teeth. as he rose back to glide alongside the older boy. So, Birdy still had an issue with being short. It wasn’t like he was fond of being stuck in such a young body, but he and Birdy shared 98% of their genes so this chimera body of theirs should hit a normal height eventually. Nudge glided up to coast on Fang’s other side a few minutes later, and Ed couldn’t help but smile as she arrived.

“Morning.” Fang nodded to her.

“I’m hungry.” she said, and Ed’s stomach grumbled. He hadn’t had much for dinner last night, since he split the rabbit he caught with Fang, so food was sounding really good right about now. Nudge hadn’t even had rabbit, apparently too grossed out from watching the hawks eat, so she must be even hungrier.

“Town about three minutes away. Follow me.” he glided up and away, and Ed followed next to Nudge. How long had the lanky bastard been up that he already knew where the nearest signs of civilisation were?

They flew for a few minutes before the uninterrupted wilderness gave way to buildings and mostly-empty streets, and Ed took in everything he could. This world was so different from Amestris, but also so very similar. Fang had them touch down behind a house with a small back yard and clothes hanging on a line to dry. Ed grabbed a pair of blue pants which looked like they would fit in the leg, a white shirt which seemed to have words printed on it, and a belt just in case the pants were too big in the waist. And then, just before they took off, he spotted the red hooded jacket laying over the railing of the back porch. It was definitely too big for him, but he could deal with that.

A few blocks over he broke into a tool shed to change, and turned the shirt right side out to discover that the text on the front read Fuck Off in plain black font. It was a bit big, hanging down past the belt which had turned out to be unnecessary, but that was okay. The jacket had the word Wranglers on the back in white, under a weird picture, and the sleeves were so long Ed had to cuff them three times before his hands were visible. He walked out, and Fang smirked in a way that made Ed want to give him a solid left hook

“Nice shirt.” he inclined his head towards the profanity, and Nudge giggled.

“One of you has a knife, right?” Ed asked, scratching at the back of his new jacket. “I can’t get my wings out through these things.”

“Turn around.” Fang said, pulling something out of his pocket. Ed did, and cool metal sliced through his new clothes to trace over his folded wings. He shook them out when Fang stepped back, and they unfolded through the newly made slits.

“Thanks.” Ed grinned. His feet were still bare, which would stand out now that he was wearing proper clothes, but he could deal with getting shoes later. They flew liesurely for another few minutes before Fang dipped his head, indicating a building where a guy was tossing boxes in the dumpster out back. Nudge and Fang began to circle, and Ed trailed after them when they descended to perch on the edge of the dumpster.

Fang pulled over the box that the employee had just tossed in, and began rifling through the contents. “Nirvana.” he grinned, just a brief flash of teeth before his lifted out a pair of things wrapped in paper. “Burgers?”

Nudge shook her head, obviously still unsettled from watching the hawks eat the day before, but Ed accepted the food and tucked it in the pockets of his new super-soft jacket. He’d known that chimeras required a higher caloric intake than normal humans since before waking up in this world, it was something you learnt really quick travelling with two of them, but he hadn’t realized just how much energy it took to fly. Darius and Heinkel didn’t fly, though, so they probably needed their stupid high amounts of calories to continuously repress their animal features.

“Ed? E~d.” Nudge was waving something in front of his face, he realized belatedly.

“Wha?” he blinked, eyes flicking from the mystery parcel to her face.

“I asked if you wanted one of the apple pie things.”

Ed looked back at the folded cardboard tube thing Nudge was holding out to him, and slowly nodded before grabbing it. It wouldn’t measure up to Mrs. Hughes’s pie, but pie had plenty of sugar in it, and sugar was energy. The box which contained the pie also yielded chicken strips and stale fries and a few cups of day-old cut fruit, and Ed tucked the bottom of his jacket into his belted pants to hold his share.

The flight back to the cave was quick, and with the sun up the edge of the cliff made a pleasantly warm seat. It was amazing, how even stale food from a dumpster could taste good when eaten in a beautiful place like this. Ed stretched out his wings a bit and leaned back on his arms, tilting his head towards the sun. He still had to get Ari and Lev out of the School, had to get his hands on all the materials needed to make a body, human or otherwise, had to find a way back to Amestris so he could keep his promise to Winry. But he could definitely use the help of these other chimera, so rescuing Ari and Lev was on hold until their Max showed up.

Nudge came out of the cave to sit next to him, and Fang sat down on her other side a moment later. “Y’know, I think the way they swoop and stuff is like a message to other hawks.” Fang said, tilting his head slightly as he watched the birds in flight. “Like they’re telling them where there’s game or where they’ll be or something. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I will.”

“Oh.” Nudge said quietly, and Ed felt a bizarre rush of shame. That was weird. He had no reason to feel chastised, though Nudge’s shoulders were hunched in a bit and her head was down and- she felt ashamed. Nudge was feeling ashamed. Yesterday she’d been worried, and curious. He was picking up on her emotions, and probably Fang’s too. He’d picked up on Lev’s emotions back in the School, the determination to escape and the hope for what would come after.

Once that mystery was solved, Ed’s mind began to wander to the chimeras he’d left behind at the School. Lev was probably being subjected to horrible terrible experiments still, and Ari was probably still acting as an Eraser. It made Ed sick to his stomach, knowing that the scientists at the School had turned an innocent little boy into a weapon just to see if they could.

“Fang?” Nudge’s quiet voice broke the silence. “We’ve just got to go find Max. Or should we go on and try to find Angel?”

Fang sighed, and now that Ed knew what it was he could feel Fang’s flicker of worry before the teen spoke. “We’re going to circle back, look for Max. She must’ve... run into something.”

Nudge nodded, and Ed felt her flicker of fear before it was smothered. Fang got to his feet. Ed shifted so he was crouching on his.

“You ready?” the dark-eyed boy asked, his face absolutely emotionless.

“Absolutely.” Nudge jumped to her feet as her pale friend tipped forward and flung his wings out, letting rising hot air carry him up into the sky. She kept talking until it was evident he could no longer hear her, though, then backed up two steps and took a small running leap off the edge of the cliff.

“Tarzan!” she yelled as her wings snapped open, red-brown feathers catching the wind and bearing her out away from the rock face. Ed chuckled, and leapt out into open air to glide after her.

“What does that even mean?” he asked, tipping his wings to glide closer.

“No idea!” she called over her shoulder, smile audible in her voice, and her joy was so infectious Ed just had to laugh. How long had it been since he had a chance to really laugh? Since before Briggs, that was for sure, and even discounting the immeasurable time he spent in the Gate that added up to almost a year. Ed suddenly missed Resembool, missed Winry and Pinako and the familiar old yellow house.

As soon as this Max was reunited with Fang and Nudge, they would go and break Ari and Lev out of the School. Then he’d save Al, and together they could figure out how to get home.

\---

Hours later, Ed’s wings ached worse than they had during his escape from the School, and Max still hadn’t been located. On the upside, he’d figured out how to focus his emotion-sensing powers on either Nudge or Fang, and could switch between them at will, though he hadn’t figured out how to shut them off entirely. He was a bit curious about how long he’d had these powers without realizing it, but there was no way to answer that question so it was probably for the best if he just let it go.

“Fang?” Nudge broke the relative silence, the angle of her wings bringing her a little closer to Ed. “Do you remember where we left Max?”

“Yes.” he answered curtly. Ed focused his powers on Fang, and read almost nothing. Some determination, a hint of worry, but mostly an unsettling blankness.

“Are we going to go there?” Nudge’s curiosity and worry was already becoming a familiar sort of background noise, and Ed focused his powers on her again. Fang didn’t answer immediately, which seemed to be pretty typical of him, but when he did speak Ed wasn’t really expecting the reply.

“Not if we can help it.”

“But why?” Nudge asked, and even without his powers her confusion and worry would’ve been evident. “Maybe Max is hurt and needs help. Maybe we need to save her before we can go save Angel.”

Her? Max wasn’t a girl’s name. Then again, Nudge and Fang weren’t typical names by any metric, so...

Fang banked left, and Ed tilted his wings in synch with Nudge to follow the dark-winged chimera over the baked landscape. “I don’t think Max would have gotten hurt all by herself.” Fang said slowly, his tone measured. “She’s not going to fly into a tree or crash-land. So if she’s late because she’s hurt, it probably means that someone, a person, hurt her. Which means that someone knows about her. We don’t want that someone to know about us too. Which they would if we went to where Max is.”

Nudge’s mouth fell open, and Ed glided a bit closer to brush their wings together. Catching bugs in the throat at whatever speed they were flying couldn’t possibly be comfortable.

“And if Max is late because she’s busy, then our going to her won’t speed things up—” Fang continued, not even looking back over his shoulder. “She’ll come when she’s good and ready. So for right now, we do a general look-see. But we’re not going all the way back.”

Nudge opened her mouth again, as if to say something, but closed it without a word. Confusion welled in her, swirling with guilt and affection and fear, and Ed forced himself to focus on Fang when Nudge started crying. He’d never been great at comforting Al, and he barely even knew Nudge. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she tried not to cry, staring intently at something down below. Probably the white truck, the only thing moving besides them. There were signs by the road, labelled with the names of places Birdy had never heard of along with what must be some form of distance measurement, and suddenly her eyes widened.

“Fang!” Nudge called, the beat of her wings changing. “It’s Tipisco, down below! I’m going there!”

“No way, Nudge.” Fang said, a steel in his voice which Ed had been on the receiving end of far too many times from the Colonel. He braked with his wings, falling back to fly just above them. “Don’t get sidetracked now. Stay with me.”

Ed fully expected him to finish with ‘that’s an order’, but even though the words weren’t spoken they were definitely implied. Ed focused his powers back on Nudge, and felt a secondhand surge of desparate bravery.

“No!” Nudge hunched her shoulders and tucked her head down, quickly losing altitude. “I have to go find my parents! If Max is gone, I’m going to need _someone_.”

Ed mimicked Nudge’s position, and angled his wings to catch up. Nudge was just a scared little kid, and as much as Ed really wasn’t usually a voice of reason, maybe she’d listen better to someone who didn’t try to order her around.

“What? Nudge, you’re crazy.” Fang was gliding down after them, tight looping circles which cast his shadow over them intermittently “Come on, let’s talk about it. Let’s find a place, take a break.”

“He’s right, let’s land and talk about this.” Ed added.

“No!” Nudge yelled, squaring her shoulders and lifting her head. “I’m going, and you can’t stop me!” she dove down at a steep angle, and Ed followed on her tail.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t go.” he said when they had more or less levelled off, gliding just slightly behind Nudge. “Just, what are you planning to do?”

“I’ll figure it out when I get there.” Nudge huffed, fear replaced by anger and rock-solid determination.

“When we get there.” Ed flicked his wing forward, brushing against hers. She looked at him, surprise evident even without his powers, and he managed a smile. “I’ve got nowhere else to be.”

Nudge grinned back at him, joy shining through every inch of her face and echoing through his powers into him.

\---

“Nudge, for the last time, give this up. This is a bad idea, a terrible idea.”

Ed rolled his eyes. Fang had mostly shut up after he realized that Nudge wasn’t listening, and a quick focus of his power had told Ed that the older chimera was sullen but resigned. Nudge had explained over his objections about the papers she found in their mountain home, her birthname of Monique and the address in Tipisco where her parents supposedly lived. Or used to live, as Ed had pointed out. Nudge had shrugged and said something about a forwarding address, which Ed could only guess was something to do with mail.

Tipisco, as it turned out, was a small place full of meandering streets and oddly shaped houses. It reminded Ed a little bit of the Ishvalan slums outside East City, but less welcoming.

“C’mon.” Fang said softly, gliding up between them in near absolute silence. “I see Chapparral Court.”

They landed out of sight, and it took Ed a few tries to fold his wings up inside his jacket but he managed it as they snaked through unfamiliar plants and discarded things and the rusty metal skeletons of old cars. Nudge was apprehensive as they crouched down amidst abandoned nozzle-topped cans, largely hidden behind an old car with heavily stylized words painted on it.

“I’m gonna check the area.” Ed said quietly, and Fang nodded at him. They were still close to the School, and he’d rather not be caught unawares. Some of the dry bushy plants were the size of small trees, but with the way they grew a full grown Eraser could easily hide behind one of them. At a guess, he’d say the bigger plants were chokecherry, but he’d never seen them growing anywhere this dry before. Then again, Amestris didn’t really have many places like this, and he and Al hadn’t spent much time in any of them.

A melodious chuckle made Ed’d skin erupt in goosebumps despit the burning sun, and he whirled around to see an Eraser. Fully morphed, easily twice his height, and probably acting on orders to capture not kill. Ed slammed his palms together reflexively, and grabbed a handful of branches on the nearest juniper. The wood was far from ideal, he much preferred working with metal, but it’d do. He pictured an array, then a staff tipped with a horned skull on one end and a ring of spikes on the other, and directed the flow of his and the planet’s energy into the wood.

The Eraser laughed, and Ed’s heart fell right past his stomach. He couldn’t do alchemy like he was used to doing, this chimera body didn’t have the ability. **Shit**.


	7. Chapter 7

“Silly runt.” the Eraser sneered, reaching out lazily as if to pat Ed’s hair. “What’s that gonna do?”

“ **WHO’S AN ULTRA SMALL SHRIMP?!** ” Birdy roared as Ed grabbed the Eraser by the wrist, planting his feet. Birdy’s body didn’t have the muscle memory, or much muscle at all, but all it took was a twist and heave to get the Eraser on his back in the dirt. Ed kicked it in the head to make sure it stayed down for a while and skittered back a few steps, breathing heavily. Erasers travelled and worked in packs. If this one was here, then the others...

Ed focused on his powers, linking his mind to Nudge’s. She was scared, terrified, but there was pity there too. Disbelief joined the mix, followed by grief, and then by determination. Bravery. Anger. Ed crashed through the underbrush, not bothering with stealth or hiding his trail. The Erasers already knew they were here, had already encountered Nudge and Fang if the caterwauling from up ahead was any indication.

Cactus littered the final stretch, and Ed shook his wings out before leaping into the air. Nudge dropped down to the ground from her hovering position, grabbed one of the nozzle-topped cans, and swooped back up into the air to shake it. Then she dropped down to hover just in front of the Eraser pummelling Fang, and green arced through the air into its face.

The Eraser screamed, leaping to its feet and swiping at its eyes with clawed hands. Fang was airborne in an instant, and Nudge sprayed another Eraser in the face before pitching the emptied can at the first one’s head. Ed reached Fang just seconds after Nudge got up to their altitude, and turned to look at the scene of the fight he’d missed. One bloody Eraser nxt to an equally bloody cactus, one green-faced Eraser howling on the ground, and one green-haired Eraser still standing.

“You’re dead, freaks.” he snarled, and Ed was pretty sure his heart stopped for a second because that was **Ari’s** voice.

“Oh like you’re not a freak yourself.” Nudge spat. “Try looking in a mirror, dog boy!”

“Ari?” Ed slowed his wing beats, losing altitude until he was only hovering a foot or two above the Eraser’s head. “I thought-”

Ari scowled. “You thought what, that I’d wait for you after you **abandoned** me?”

Ed flinched. “I didn’t-”

“You did!” Ari snapped. “Just like Dad. And now you’re with **them**?”

“Al, please.”

“I hate you!” he screamed. “You left me! This is all your fault!” he fumbled in his jacket for a second before pulling out a gun, and Ed stared blankly at the weapon. Al- blamed him? Of course he did. It was his fault, after all. He’d been the one to suggest they try to bring Mom back, the one who bound Al’s soul to the armour when it all went wrong, the one who promised to get his little brother’s body back at any cost and **failed**.

Something struck the side of his head, and he jerked sideways as something else whistled past his ear. A bullet. Al was going to shoot him.

“Ed, we have to go!” Nudge yelled, and he forced himself to beat his wings harder, gaining altitude and following her through the sky. The flight passed in a blur, and when they reached the cave in the cliff face Ed didn’t even bother to fold his wings against his back. He staggered to the back of the cave, sat down heavily, and wrapped them around himself like a feathery cocoon.

“Ed?” Nudge said after a while, and he belatedly realized that she was concerned. “It’s okay, you know. Ari hates all of us. He’s the one who took Angel.”

“Al hates me.” Ed mumbled into his knees.

“Who’s Al?” Nudge asked, petting one of his wings.

Ed took a shaky breath, and exhaled slowly. His throat felt tight, but not to the point that it would affect his voice. “My little brother.” he said quietly. “Our mom died when we were little, and I was so **sure** that we could do what nobody else had ever gotten right. I lost my leg trying to bring her back, but Al lost his whole body. I gave up my arm to seal his soul in a suit of armour, but…” his breath hitched, and he curled in on himself tighter.

“You lost your leg?” Nudge asked slowly, confusion evident even without his powers. Ed took another shaky breath, and forced himself to exhale evenly.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve been twelve.” he said, fingernails biting into his forearms. “I was born in another world, and wound up here somehow in this chimera body.”

“Wow.” there was a quiet thud, presumably Nudge’s shoulders hitting the back wall of the cave. “So how old were you in the other world?”

“Sixteen.”

“Really? So you’re older than Max and Fang and Iggy!”

Ed wondered briefly who Iggy was, then slowly pulled his left wing back in towards his body. Nudge was indeed leaning back against the wall, looking up at the banded rock on the cave ceiling. “You really believe me?” Ed asked, frowning slightly. Before he’d come here, he wouldn’t have believed anyone who said they’d passed through the Gate from another planet or universe or whatever. But Nudge was just sitting there, calm as can be, even smiling a little bit.

“We have wings, and we’re being hunted by genetically engineered wolf-man soldiers. Little bit hard to top that on the weirdness scale.”

Ed decided not to mention any of the homunculi. He pulled his other wing back, and let them hang loosely against the wall. He couldn’t think of Ari as his brother’s copy anymore. Doing that would destroy him, and he couldn’t afford to break down here. Not when he still had to figure out a way to save his real brother. Al was waiting for him at the Gate, and he wasn’t about to let that promise go unfulfilled. But he couldn’t do clap transmutation, which meant he’d need some chalk and a decent sized space to draw the arrays for making Al a new body and summoning his soul from the Gate.

He absently sketched the beginnings of a circle in the dirt of the cave floor, then rubbed it out and drew a different one. He’d just make something simple, a little box with a lid and a bas relief demon skull. He pressed his hands to the ground outside the circle, and willed his energy into the rock. Only, his energy didn’t move. The stone didn’t shift, not in the slightest. His circle didn’t glow or crackle or even rebound.

“What’s that?” Nudge pointed at the circle, and Ed sat back on his heels, a cold pressure building in his chest.

It wasn’t him, it wasn’t Birdy, it was this world. This crazy, fucked up world had no alchemy. Without alchemy he couldn’t save Al, couldn’t go home, couldn’t keep any of his promises. Absurdly, he recalled the feeling of five hundred and twenty cenz in his palm. Mustang would never get his money back. Ed couldn’t help it, he chuckled. All the promises he’d made, all the people who were waiting for him to come home, and he was thinking about that bastard? The chuckle built into a laugh, and he clutched at his sides like he was going to come apart at the seams.

“Ed? Ed!” Nudge grabbed his elbow, her concern and fear washing over him, but it felt distant. He couldn’t get home, couldn’t save Ari, couldn’t do **anything**. Tears welled in his eyes, and he couldn’t blink them back fast enough to stop them from streaming down his face. Some big brother he’d turned out to be. His throat tightened, and laughter turned into sobs.

“Ed, it’s okay.” Nudge said, stroking the top of one of his wings. “It’s, um, a really good circle.”

Ed chuckled, and the sound came out pained. “It’s perfect.” he reached out and dragged his hand through the drawing, erasing a good chunk of the array. “Perfectly useless.” he curled his fingers against the stone floor, drawing new lines in the sand. He remembered the hike into Leor, the ride out to the ruins of Xerxes, going to the beach with Mom and Al and the Rockbells before everything went wrong forever. People and places he would never see again. His hand curled into a fist, and his arm shook with the force of his knuckles against the ground.

It wasn’t right. How could the Gate be connected to a world without alchemy? The Gate was the source of all alchemy, an alchemist’s connection to it was what allowed them to harness tectonic energy. He’d been inside the Gate, twice! His connection was probably stronger than anyone’s! And yet, he couldn’t do even the simplest of transmutations.

“Can I interest either of you in-” Fang stopped mid-sentence, and Ed quickly brought his left hand up to wipe his eyes.

“Sorry.” he said thickly, mopping his face dry with the sleeve of his jacket. “Just, not having a great day.” he managed a humourless chuckle, and Nudge patted the back of his shoulder.

“I’ve got kabobs.” Fang said after a moment of tense silence, and Nudge squealed.

“ **Kabobs**!” she yelled, darting forward and grabbing one from the foil wrapping. Her joy flared at the edge of Ed’s mind, and he tried to focus on it. “Where did you get them? You didn’t have time to go all the way to town. Oh my gosh they’re still hot.”

“Let’s just say some campers are going to be a little surprised.” Fang answered, pulling out a second skewer and walking over to crouch in front of Ed. “Eat.” he said simply. “You’ll feel better.”

Ed nodded, and accepted the food. It was warm, and his stomach growled at the smell of it. He pulled a chunk of meat off of one end with his teeth, and his jaw ached as he chewed.

“Hey, Ed.” Nudge patted the ground next to where she was sitting at the mouth of the cave. “Want any of the meat from my kabob? I’m not gonna eat it, so...” she trailed off, and Ed stood to go sit next to her.

“Sure.” he said, sitting down with his legs hanging off the edge. “You can have some of my veggies.” he pulled off about half of the vegetables, and dropped them into Nudge’s waiting hand. She promptly popped a piece of roasted pepper in her mouth.

“Now **this** is food.” Nudge sighed, leaning back and closing her eyes. Ed could feel contentment washing over her, and it echoed in him. Good food, a nice view, tolerable company... if Al was here, it would be like any other misadventure they’d gotten into while he was a State Alchemist.

“So I guess we have to decide whether to keep looking for Max or go try to save Angel.” Fang said, taking a bite of his kabob.

“But the Erasers said everyone else was dead.” Nudge replied after a second. “Doesn’t that mean Angel and Max too?” sadness was practically radiating from her, settling heavy across his shoulders like an automail arm.

“No way to tell.” Fang said. “The thing is, if Max isn’t here, is it because she’s dead? How would they have found her? Angel...” he paused, and Ed switched his empathic focus over to the older chimera. That was weird, he wasn’t getting a reading at all. “Well, we knew they had Angel. That’s probably all over with by now.”

Nudge dropped her head into her hands, and Ed switched his powers back to her. Feeling her grief was better than Fang’s numbness. “I can’t think about it.”

“I know, but what are your-” Fang abruptly stopped, squinting off into the distance. Ed followed his line of sight to a pair of dark, distant splotches, and mentally shrugged. Incoming hawks, no big.

Nudge licked the foil when she was done with her kebab, but Fang just kept looking out towards the approaching hawks. No, Ed realized with a start. They were too big to be hawks. More chimeras? No, these two were only waiting for one other. Unless... fuck, he really hoped that the sicko ‘scientists’ at the School hadn’t thought to give Erasers wings.

Fang stood abruptly and pulled a reflective bit of metal out of his pocket. He held his hand out, and angled his wrist until the metal bounced sunlight towards the approaching chimeras. He flashed it at them a few times, and as the chimera changed course to head directly for the cave Ed felt a spike of fear from Nudge. A minute later, though, that changed to pure shock.

Her mouth fell open, and Ed’s eyes widened as he realized that the incoming chimeras looked mostly human. And not Eraser-y human, either. They were dirty, skinny boys with pale hair. The only Eraser Ed had ever seen without black or dark brown hair was ~~Al~~ Ari, and he’d never seen one so skinny. Or so young, though he supposed they had to be children at some point.

The smaller of the two landed clumsily, sending up a spray of sand and small bits of rock. The larger one landed a second later, much more gracefully despite the fact that his eyes were closed.

“You aren’t **dead**.” Nudge exclaimed, joy an surprise washing over Ed in equal measure. He switched his focus over to the taller one, and felt mostly relief with some joy and irritation mixed in.

“No, you aren’t dead either.” the taller one huffed. “How about just ‘hello’?” he crossed his arms, and Ed switched his focus to the smaller one. Even shorter than him, which was something of a relief. Being the shortest sucked, especially when he was technically the oldest person here.

Ed got an impression of exhaustion and worry as the shorter chimera brushed sand out of his hair. “Hi guys. We couldn’t stay home- there’s Erasers all over the mountain. So we decided to come here. Anybody got a problem with that?”

Nudge beamed, smiling practically from ear to ear. “Of course not!” she chirped, bouncing forward and grabbing the taller one’s hands. That chimera looke at her and smiled, while the shorter one looked to Ed and tilte his head.

“Who’re you?” he asked, wings folding in tight to his back.

“He escaped from the School.” Nudge supplied happily, while Fang clapped the taller chimera on the shoulder. “He’s trying to bust out another birdkid who was in there with him.”

“Whoa, really?” the shorter chimera asked, eyes wide. “I’m the Gasman, but you can call me Gazzy.” Gazzy smiled, holding out a hand.

“I’m Edward Elric, but everyone calls me Ed.” Ed shook the proffered hand, trying to think of a way to ask why his name was so weird without being rude. “Why...?” Ed started, and the taller blond chimera snorted.

“Don’t ask, just stay upwind.”

Gazzy rolled his eyes, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Tall blind and buzzkill over there is Iggy, by the way.”

Blind? Ed winced at the thought of losing his sight, then grimaced upon remembering that Mustang had, in fact, lost his eyes in that final battle against Father. Or just before it, rather, when the gold-toothed doctor forced the Colonel to perform human transmutation. Ed hoped the bastard was okay.

“I’m sorry about your eyes.” he said softly.

Iggy cracked a brief smile that Ed couldn’t read, and Gazzy stretched his arms over his head with a huge yawn.

“Alright, bedtime.” Fang said, pointing towards the back of the cave. For a second, though, Ed didn’t see the lanky dark-eyed chimera directing his friends to bed. No, not even a second. For a single heartbeat Ed saw Mustang, shoulders square, spine straight, arm out pointing his team where they needed to be. Then he blinked and no, it was just Fang ushering Nudge and Iggy into the cave.

But he couldn’t deny that there was a similarity between the two of them, Fang and Mustang. The shape of the eyes, the stray lock of hair which lifted away from the others, the way he effortlessly took charge of his fellow chimera. Ed tried to imagine Mustang as a scrawny teenage alchemy student, and almost laughed out loud. He was dragged back to reality by a hand on his, and he looked down to see Nudge curling his fingers into a loose fist. The other chimera boys already had their fists stacked, like Fang and Nudge had done the previous night.

Ed rested his fist on top of Iggy’s, and was promptly met with raised eyebrows from the other boys. He met their eyes as Nudge added her fist to the stack, then glanced down and tapped her hand first. She smiled at him, and after the tapping was done tugged him over to lie down near her.

“So, what was that glaring about?” he asked quietly once they were curled on the floor facing each other.

“The tapping is kinda, well...” Nudge let out her breath in a little huff, blowing some . “It’s something we’ve done for forever. No matter where we are, we stack and tap before bed.”

“We?” Ed asked, readjusting his jacket-pillow.

“The Flock. Me and Max and Fang, and Iggy and Gazzy and Angel. And now you.” she grinned, bright and true, and Ed felt a surge of pure affection. “I mean, we have to ask Max to make it official, but you’re a bird kid and you’re cool and-”

“Oh my god Nudge **shut up**.” Iggy groaned. “Some of us are trying to sleep.”

“Sorry.” she grinned sheepishly. Ed chuckled, and shifted to a marginally more comfortable position on the stone floor. It had been a long day, and he’d never been good at staying up late when there wasn’t an interesting research topic dangling in front of him.


	8. Chapter 8

Ed tilted his wings minutely, dropping a little lower. If he knew how close he had to be to tune in to the other chimera’s emotions, he would be one step closer to figuring how to shut them off entirely. He glanced down, gauging the distance between himself and the wheeling avian chimera, then did a double take. There had only been four this morning. That fifth one coming in low must be the Max they were all waiting for.

After a moment of deliberation, he began to spiral down in wide, shallow arcs. He was still a ways away when he was hit with sudden, overwhelming joy from three of the four chimeras he’d been sharing the cave with. Not tempered with shock, like Nudge’s had been when the blond pair showed up, and since it was coming from multiple sources it was that much stronger. Ed narrowed his focus to Fang so he could fight the smile off his face. The quiet chimera boy was happy too, but it was a restrained sort of joy, coupled with curiosity and concern and determination.

Fang jerked his head towards the cliff, and Ed slowed his descent as they headed into the cave in single file. Max was someone very important to the chimeras who called themselves the Flock, he should probably give them some time alone to reunite. But he couldn’t just keep circling over the cave mouth until they were done. After a moment of deliberation, Ed landed silently on the ledge which lead out to the side of the cave mouth. The hawks didn’t even give him a second glance as he sidled along the wall towards the entrance, intent on getting a better understanding of what kind of person Max was. If she was the type to tell him to hit the road, he’d need a new plan to break Lev out.

“Max!” Nudge cried. Ed wasn’t surprised to hear her speaking first. “We were so worried- I didn’t know what had happened to you, and we didn’t know what to do, and Fang said we were going to eat rats, and-”

“Okay, okay.” an unfamiliar voice cut Nudge off before she could ramble too far off-topic. “Everything’s okay.” Max said, and amusement flashed through Fang like lightning, there and gone so fast Ed would’ve missed it if his powers had been focused on anyone else. “I’m just glad to see you safe.”

There was a slight pause, and Ed switched his focus over to Nudge. Her signal was easiest to lock onto, and right now she was filled with relief and contentment. Ed relaxed against the cliff face despite himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he actually felt that relaxed. It must’ve been before everything went wrong. Before his enlistment, before the automail, before he and Al broke the taboo... maybe even before Mom died. It only lasted for a second, but when it faded Ed felt better than he had in, well, a really long time.

“What are **you two** doing here?” Max snapped, presumably at Iggy and Gazzy. “Why didn’t you stay home?”

“We couldn’t, there were Erasers all over the mountain.” Gazzy saud earnestly. “They were hunting for us. We’d be dog meat by now.”

“When did they start hunting for you? Right after we left?” Max asked, obviously startled by the news.

“No...” Gazzy said slowly, and when Ed switched his focus over the the younger chimera he felt only guilt and apprehension. He quickly switched back to Nudge, who was apparently finding this quite amusing.

“What?” Mask said, now sounding suspicious. “When did they start coming after you?”

“Was it- was it after the oil slick Hummer crash?” Gazzy said hesitantly. There was a moment of perfect silence, an even from outside the cave Ed could feel the tense atmosphere inside as Max processed the young blond’s words. “Or maybe it was more- after the bomb.”

“I think it was the bomb.” Iggy agreed without missing a beat, his tone perfectly matter-of-fact. “That definitely seemed to tick them off.”

“Bomb?” Max asked incredulously. “ **Bomb**? You guys set off a **bomb**?! Didn’t that tell the Erasers exactly where you were? You should’ve stayed hidden!”

“They already knew where we were.” Gazzy said defensively. “They’d seen all of us—they knew we were in the area.”

“It was only a matter of time.” Iggy agreed.

For a few long seconds, no sound came from the cave but muffled laughter. Ed widened his focus, and his eyebrows went up on his forehead. That was Fang laughing? Well, he was just a kid after all.

“Well, I’m glad you’re safe.” Max said lamely over Fang’s poorly smothered sniggers. “You were right to come here.” she said more firmly, and something about her tone felt strangely familiar. “Smart thinking. Excellent.”

“Um, Max?” Nudge said hesitantly a second later.

“It’s okay, sweetie.” Max said softly, and Ed narrowed his focus back to Nudge. She was... nervous?

“I’ve got something to share too.” Nudge said, her apprehension seeping into his limbs.

“What is it?” Max asked, her voice sweet and affectionate.

“We’re not alone here.” Nudge said, and Ed realized where she was headed. He had to admit, it was a better plan than just loitering on the ledge and hoping they would hang around in the cave a bit before heading back out into the sky.

“What?” Max asked, audibly confused and wary. Ed stepped into the mouth of the cave, hooking his thumbs in the openings of his single big hoodie pocket. and kept his wings loosely against his back.

“She means me.” he said, and Max’s head whipped around to look at him. She had Nudge behind her in a flash, feet planted wide and knees bent. It wasn’t that different from Fang’s posture when Ed had first met him and Nudge.

“Who’re you?” she spat, brown eyes narrowed at him. Ed held up his hands in the universal ‘don’t hurt me’ gesture, though honestly he could probably take her in a fair fight.

“A friend. Right, Nudge?”

“Mm hmm.” Nudge nodded quickly, grabbing one of Max’s arms to get her attention. “Ed was here before us. He’s trying to get back in and save someone from the School too!”

“A likely story.” Max scowled. Ed shifted his focus to her, and got a wave of fear and anger and protectiveness. Ah, of course she saw him as a threat. Nudge had told him about how they were constantly wary of being discovered by the School, and she’d all but told Max outright that he was from there. “Leave, **now**.” Max said firmly.

Ed crossed his arms and frowned at her. He’d faced worse enemies back home, but even with daily training this body wasn’t yet combat ready. But it was seriously unlikely that she knew what she was doing, considering how the other cimera had reacted to him running basic drills. “No.” he said as resolutely as he could. “I need to get Lev and-” Ed winced, and cut himself off. Not Al, Al was still at the Gate, and Ari hated him. “I need to get Lev out of that hellhole. I can help you guys get Angel out, but I need to save my friend too.”

“Lev and who?” Max asked, suspicion clear in her face and voice as well as through his powers.

“I-” Ed looked away, and swallowed hard. These chimeras knew Ari as an enemy. Telling them that the Eraser was, or at least had been, practically his brother wasn’t going to win him any points. “We had another friend, but she died before our first escape atempt.”

Max’s suspicion vanished instantly. No, not vanished, just diminished. She still didn’t trust him, but now sympathy was the ruling emotion. “I’m sorry.” she said, her face softening.

“So Ed can come with?” Nudge asked, her face brightening.

“Sure, why not.” Max sighed, then held out her fist. Fang’s hand was resting on hers instantly, then he guided Iggy’s hand into the stack. Gazzy placed his fist on top of Iggy’s, and Nudge grabbed Ed by the wrist to put his hand atop Gazzy’s. Max openly stared at the darker chimera, but Nudge pointedly looked at their hand stack and tapped the back of Ed’s hand twice.

“To Angel!” Max said, once all the tapping was done.

“To Angel!” the rest of the Flock echoed.

“I’m coming, Lev.” Ed said under his breath. He’d already failed two people in this world. He wouldn’t fail a third.


End file.
